Today, Lisa Ventriss, President of Vermont Business Roundtable (VBR) and Jeffrey Carr, President, Economic & Policy Resources (EPR), announced the Q4 2017 outlook results of their joint initiative, the VBR/EPR Business Conditions Survey and Index.
Overall Finding
The latest survey, which was conducted during the first two weeks of October 2017, achieved a response rate of 68 percent overall and included a 50 percent or greater response rate from 10 of 15 represented sectors within the membership. Survey results show that:
- Roughly two-thirds of respondents (63%) shared negative outlooks specifically with ease of hiring for available positions, improved from the previous survey (71%);
- Approximately two-thirds of responses to the question about the state’s overall business climate outlook were neutral (63%), a decline from the previous survey (48%). The remaining responses were split between positive and negative, 19% and 18%, respectively.
- The information sector had the most optimistic outlook on the general business climate (100% optimistic), while the education sector had the least optimistic outlook (50% neutral, 50% pessimistic). This is the second quarter in a row that the information sector led in optimism about the general business climate.
